The Latest Features
Denmark’s Raidho Acoustics—Listening and Learning
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 April 2025 01 April 2025
If you regularly read this monthly column or frequent our YouTube channel, you are likely aware of our ongoing globetrotting quest for primary-source material for our websites and videos. Frequently, the SoundStage! Network’s video team and I travel across North America and Europe to visit hi-fi companies, talk with key personnel, and learn about and listen to review-worthy products. We hope to expand our travel scope to Asia soon as well.
Hegel Music Systems H190v Streaming Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by Matt Bonaccio Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 April 2025 01 April 2025
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
It’s well known by now that trends, philosophies, and designs are often recycled in hi-fi. Déjà vu is common; what was once old is new again. Hadn’t you seen that speaker or amp before, years ago? You’d be no guiltier than me for thinking this way about the Hegel H190v integrated amplifier. It looks much the same as its father product, the H190, and indeed, much like all of Hegel’s other offerings. In many regards, it is the same as the H190. But as the saying goes, it’s what’s inside that counts, and that little “v” hanging off the end of the model number denotes some very significant goings-on under the hood.
Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 Loudspeaker
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- Written by George de Sa George de Sa
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 March 2025 15 March 2025
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada’s National Research Council can be found through this link.
In the realm of vocal performance, good things often do come in small packages. Think Lady Gaga (5′1″), Emilia Clarke (5′2″), Reese Witherspoon (5′3″)—huge talents, diminutive statures. Surprisingly often, this maxim holds in the realm of loudspeakers, too, where the sound performance of some standmount designs—like the vocal performance of some singers—is so alluring that one’s listening pleasure can quickly develop into full-fledged infatuation.
Recommended Reference Component: Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature Loudspeaker
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 March 2025 15 March 2025
The latest version of the venerable 801 loudspeaker from Bowers & Wilkins, which debuted in 1979, is the 801 D4 Signature. In his review of the 801 D4 Signature, published on SoundStage! Ultra last December, senior editor Jason Thorpe writes that the original model made a deep impression on him and many others and that it was among a small group of “landmark stereo components that changed the direction of audio.” The 801 was indeed a seminal loudspeaker, one that set the course for Bowers & Wilkins. It has undergone many revisions over the years and has introduced design elements that are now found in other models.
The Miracle of the Compact Disc and the Usefulness of the Shanling ET3 Transport
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 March 2025 01 March 2025
When the Compact Disc was released to the public in 1982, it seemed unimaginable that music encoded on a disc could one day be transmitted wirelessly, as we experience today. It seemed equally unimaginable that it could be stored on a server thousands of miles away and played back nearly instantaneously in the home, as now happens with streaming services. This was a time when physical media not only dominated the market, but was the only option for high-fidelity playback.
The T+A Elektroakustik R 2500 R Proves Why the Stereo Receiver Might Make a Comeback
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 March 2025 01 March 2025
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
Most hi-fi enthusiasts agree that the 1970s can be considered the golden age of the stereo receiver, which is essentially an integrated amplifier with a radio-reception capability. Stereo receivers were everywhere back then. By the 1980s, however, as separate components gained popularity, stereo receivers fell out of favor. The prevailing view was—has been—that standalone components (e.g., preamplifiers, amplifiers, tuners, CD players, phono stages) can be optimized for the particular function they serve without compromises and should therefore be able to offer superior performance to integrated components. Receivers and integrated amplifiers became second-class citizens of the hi-fi domain.
Focal Theva N°2 Loudspeaker
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- Written by Matt Bonaccio Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 March 2025 01 March 2025
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada’s National Research Council can be found through this link.
When striving to comprehend and assess abstruse things, we tend to resort to simplifications. Our general view of a company and its products, for instance, is often based on our impression of some representative sample from its offerings: a favorite crossover SUV from a car manufacturer, the flagship cellphone or TV from an electronics manufacturer. Likewise, we often perceive the top model from a loudspeaker manufacturer as indicative of the kind of quality that can be expected from other models from that brand and form our view of it accordingly. But an entry-level floorstander can also be a measure of a speaker maker’s competence. The Theva N°2 loudspeaker ($899 each; all prices in USD), from the French hi-fi audio equipment manufacturer Focal, a highly respected brand, exemplifies this correspondence perfectly.
Shunyata Research Theta Speaker Cable
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- Written by Killain Jones Killain Jones
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 February 2025 15 February 2025
The topic of cables is extremely polarizing among audiophiles. Different audiophiles have different thresholds for what they consider an acceptable amount to spend on cables; and the opinions about which type of cables should be prioritized—speaker cables, interconnects, or power cables—vary greatly. Because I’ve found that speaker cables deliver the greatest sonic improvement per dollar, they would be my first choice for an upgrade.
Recommended Reference Component: DALI Epikore 9 Loudspeaker
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 February 2025 15 February 2025
The idea that bigger is better does not necessarily hold when it comes to loudspeakers. Some large speakers are capable of such prodigious low-end output that they can overwhelm a room. This was something Jason Thorpe experienced when he auditioned the DALI Epikore 11 ($60,000; all prices USD for a pair), the first model to be released in the Danish brand’s premium Epikore series.
January Snow Days—Treble Clef Audio and the David Chesky Trio
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 February 2025 01 February 2025
The Canadian winter hits hard here in Ottawa, where I live. From mid-December to mid-March snow is a near-constant companion to us, punctuated by occasional major snowstorms. We call those events snow days—sporadic snow flurries don’t really count here. Despite great advances in weather forecasting, the time of onset of such storms all too often eludes accurate prediction. Two of this January’s heavy snowfalls seemed set to foil my hi-fi adventures.
